Former Nike Designer Reinvents the Bicycle Horn

Meet the Orp smart horn. Designed in Portland, Oregon by a company called FUSE, the Orp is meant to save lives with its two-tone horn and bright, electricity-saving LED lights.

Lead designer Tory Orzeck, who used to design shoes for Nike, said he decided to reinvent the bike horn when he noticed a startling rise in bike accidents in Portland, where he lives.

The Orp isn’t the steel horn that you had on your bike when you were a kid, riding to the rock quarry after school to beat the hot sun. It’s a horn with a high powered, admittedly obnoxious sound like a smoke detector – good for getting drivers’ attention when they don’t notice a biker. It also has a lighter, more polite horn that can used to say hello to a passing pedestrian.

While Mr. Orzeck was putting the horn together, it occurred to him that he could add high-intensity LED lights that wouldn’t drain too much power from the horn, and thus the Orp was born.

To raise money they went to Kickstarter, where they raised $110,000 after setting a goal of $90,000. They say they hope to go into production soon.